This is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. I’m going to read to you from an old cookbook full of recipes and stories, and hopefully it’s just interesting enough to keep your mind from ruminating, but just light enough that you can let it go when sleep arrives. Tonight, we are still deep in the pages of 1894’s The American Pastry Cook, a massive instructional tome written for hotel and steamboat cooks, and this section is as sweet as can be.

Like our own Great British Baking Show coach, Jessup Whitehead breaks down the basics on meringues and sponges, and we’ll dip our toe into Blanc Mange at the end.

Now it’s time to put away anything you were doing, and snuggle deep into your sweet covers.

You made it. To this cozy, quiet time of day, where there’s nothing to do but listen to me read old  recipes to you until you drift off to sleep.